
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




1* .» 





DISCOURSE 

ON THE 

SURVIVING REMNANT OF THE INDIAN RACE 

IN THE 

UNITED STATES. 



DISCOURSE 



ON THE 



SURVIVING REMNANT OF THE INDIAN RACE 



IN THE 



UNITED STATES. 



DELIVERED ON THE 24tH OCTOBER, 1836, BEFORE THE SOCIETY FOR 
COMMEMORATING THE LANDING OF WILLIAM PENN. 



"To-morrow the traveller shall come; he who saw me shall come; 
his eye shall seek me through the fields, and shall not rind ine."— Ossian. 




PRINTED BY A. WALDIE, 46 CARPENTER STREET. 
1836. 



(A 



At a meeting of the " Society for Commemorating the 
Landing of Wieliam Penn," held at Philadelphia, on the 24th 
day of October, 1836, 

On motion of John Vaugban, Esq., it was unanimously 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be tendered to Job R. 
Ttson, Esq. for his able and eloquent Oration, this day delivered, on 
" The Surviving Remnant of the Indian Race in the United States," 
and that he be requested to furnish a copy for publication. 

From the Minutes. 

Joseph Parker Norbis, Preset. 



J. Francts Fisher, Sec'ry pro tern. 



DISCOURSE. 



GENTLEMEN OF THE PENN SOCIETY : 

The historical orator has a wide field open to his 
researches. But every portion is not alike productive 
or beautiful ; and when he reflects how many of its 
finest tracts have been explored, and their riches 
appropriated, he may well pause in the selection of 
his topic. He may alight upon an obscure and un- 
attractive period to which no interest can be imparted, 
or upon dry and trivial events, which defy the utmost 
exertions of industry to enliven and exalt. The 
stream of time sweeps down to us, in its course, an 
intermixture of treasures and burthens; it bears upon 
its pregnant bosom, shells as well as shell -fish, pebbles 
as well as gems. Examination only can ascertain 
the precise nature of its deposites, and show us which 
has value, and which is worthless. 

Let me, however, venture to call your attention to 
a subject, which, if destitute of the charms of historical 



6 



attractiveness, possesses, at this moment, and on such 
an occasion, the merit of a peculiar adaptation, both 
with reference to its bearings upon the principles of 
Penn, and its importance to the national character. 
The theme addresses itself so directly to the feelings 
and sensibilities, that in the earnest wish to develope 
it, I almost forget my entire inability to do it justice. 

There was no subject which clung to the heart of 
William Penn with a fonder tenacity and more lively 
fervour, than justice to the original proprietors of this 
country. It had a place in his affections equal, if not 
superior, to those other distinguishing features of his 
policy— I mean religious freedom and penal clemency. 
Permit me, then, to trace, with a feeble hand, the 
high and conscientious course, which, in imitation of 
the founder of Pennsylvania, this nation is called 
upon to adopt, towards the surviving remnant of the 
Indian race, by every impulse of virtuous sentiment, 
by every motive of honourable ambition. 

The origin of the great Indian family, the lan- 
guages of the different tribes, their habits and antiqui- 
ties, have each been canvassed by learned enquiry 
and ingenious speculation. In this ardour of research, 
conducted by the master spirits of the age, it is natural 
to expect that the attention of men will be directed not 
merely to the philosophy of Indian life and manners, 



7 



but to every portion of his living history. Mankind 
will be curious to know the story of the Indian, not 
only as a solitary being, in his lonely and sequestered 
haunts, but in his intercourse with those by whom his 
country has been invaded and overrun. They will 
scan with a critical eye the character of that inter- 
course; and in pursuing the causes of his degeneracy 
and decline, they will estimate, at their proper value, 
an imputed voluntary debasement on the one hand, 
and the baneful arts of superior cunning on the other. 
Let us, then, be true to ourselves; and with the high- 
minded honour of an enlightened and Christian com- 
munity, prevent the extinction of a race, the history 
of whose downfall would involve the history of our 
own craft and perfidy. 

The American Indian is sometimes regarded as a 
being who is prone to all that is revolting and cruel. 
He is cherished, in excited imaginations, as a demo- 
niac phantasm, delighting in bloodshed, without a 
spark of generous sentiment or native benevolence. 
The philosophy of man should teach us, that the 
Indian is nothing less than a human being, in whom 
the animal tendencies predominate over the spiritual. 
His morals and intellect having received neither cul- 
ture nor development, he possesses, on the one hand, 
the infirmities of humanity; while on the other the 
divine spark in his heart, if not blown into a genial 



8 



warmth, has not been extinguished by an artificial 
polish. His affections are strong, because they are 
confined to a few objects ; his enmities are deep and 
permanent, because they are nursed in secret, without 
a religion to control them. Friendship is with him 
a sacred sentiment. He undertakes long and toilsome 
journeys to do justice to its object ; he exposes him- 
self, for its sake, to every species of privation ; he 
fights for it; and often dies in its defence. He 
appoints no fecial messenger to proclaim, by an empty 
formality, the commencement of war.* Whilst the 
European seeks advantages in the subtle finesse of 
negotiation, the American pursues them according to 
the instincts of a less refined nature, and the dictates 
of a less sublimated policy. He seeks his enemy 
before he expects him, and thus renders him his prey. 

No better evidence need be adduced of his capacity 
for a lively and lasting friendship, than the history of 
Pennsylvania, during the life time of the founder. 
It is refreshing and delightful to see one fair page, in 
the dark volume of injustice and crime, which 
American annals, on this subject, present. While 
this page reflects upon the past an accumulated 
odium, it furnishes lessons for the guide and edifica- 
tion of the future. Let me invite the philanthropist 
to this affecting story. 

* See Appendix. Note 1. 



9 



A chief object of Penn, in the settlement of his pro- 
vince, was neither land, gold, nor dominion, but "the 
glory of God, by the. civilisation of the poor Indian.'? 
Upon his arrival in Pennsylvania, the pledge con- 
tained in his Charter was redeemed by a friendly com- 
pact with the " poor Indian," which was never to be 
violated, and by an uniform and scrupulous devotion 
to his rights and interests. Oldmixon and Clarkson 
inform us, that he expended " thousands of pounds" 
for the physical and social improvement of these 
untutored and houseless tenants of the woods. His 
estate became impaired by the munificence of his 
bounty. — In return for benevolences so generous and 
pure, the Indians showed a reality of affection and an 
ardour of gratitude, which they had on no previous 
occasion professed. The colony was exempted from 
those calamities of war and desolation, which form so 
prominent a picture in the early annals of American 
settlements. During a period of forty years, the 
settlers and the natives lived harmoniously together, 
neither party complaining of a single act of 
violence, or the infliction of an injury unredressed. 
The memory of Penn lived green and fresh in their 
esteem, gratitude, and reverence, a century after. 

The tribe, thus subdued by the pacific and philan- 
thropic principles of Penn, has been untruly described 
as a cowardly and broken-down race. They were a 
2 



10 



branch of the great family of Indians, who, for so 
many years, carried on a fierce and bloody strife with 
the Alligewi on the Mississippi, and waged a deter- 
mined hostility with the Mengwe. At one period, 
they were the undisputed masters of the large tract of 
country, now known as the territory of the middle 
states. On the arrival of the English, their number 
in Pennsylvania was computed at thirty or forty 
thousand souls. Their history spoke only of conquest. 
They were a brave, proud, and warlike race, who 
gloried in the preservation of a character for valour, 
descended from the remotest times. The confederacy 
of the Six Nations, by whom they were finally van- 
quished, was not formed until 1712, and their defeat, 
as evidenced by their peculiar subjugation,* occurred 
within a few months antecedent to the demise of the 
proprietary. This same people annihilated the colony 
of De Vries, in 1632 ; formed a conspiracy to exter- 
minate the Swedes, under Printz, in 1646 ; and were 
the authors of the subsequent murders which afflicted 
the settlement, before the accession of the English 
colonists. 

Such an example furnishes some insight into the 
elements of the Indian character. Little doubt can 
exist, if the subject were fairly examined, that most 
of those sanguinary wars, of which history speaks 



See Appendix. Note 2. 



11 



with a shudder, would be found to have arisen less 
from the blood-thirst y Indian, than from the aggres- 
sions of his gold-thirsty and land-thirsty defamer. 

Soon after the discovery of America, the pope 
issued a bull, which authorised the kings of Spain to 
conquer and subdue its infidel inhabitants. And what, 
but the admitted desire of conquest and plunder, led 
Cortes to Mexico, — Pizarro to Peru, — and Hernando 
de Soto to Florida ? Their steps were marked with 
desolation and death. Human victims were daily 
sacrificed, in countless numbers, on the shrine of 
their cupidity and ambition. Blood-hounds dislodged 
from their fastnesses those miserable beings whom 
the satiated sword had spared. Pity was extinguished 
in the hearts of these fierce invaders ; — for neither 
honour nor humanity could have place in a war, the 
declared object of which was extermination. The 
details of these tragical events would sicken the 
natural sensibilities ; I therefore leave the revolting 
narrative to that barbarous taste, if it exist, which can 
dwell, without emotion or shame, upon such exploits 
of Christian conquerors. 

About a century after the letter of his holiness, 
Q,ueen Elizabeth of England, in emulation, pejhaps, 
of the prerogative he assumed, issued a proclamation 
directing her subjects to subdue the pagan savages of 



12 



the American continent. With the liberality of a 
sovereign, who could give away what she did not 
possess, she bountifully granted to Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, all those countries which were not in the 
occupancy of any Christian prince or people. Sir 
Walter Raleigh, the next depository of the queen's 
bounty, and with a patent equally extensive, planted, 
a few years after, the first English colony in North 
America. The demeanour of the English towards 
the natives, might have been anticipated from the sen- 
timents of their monarch and the principles of their 
Charter. Deceived, as they asserted, by the represent- 
ations of the Indians, in regard to the existence of 
pearls, gold, and silver, they committed outrages upon 
their property and lives, the most perfidious and cruel. 
To these, and a series of hostile acts and absurd pre- 
tensions, may be ascribed the perils and disasters of 
Raleigh, the distresses of Smith, and a long succession 
of subsequent massacres. 

In New England, the natives were met in that 
spirit of calculating prudence and cautious circum- 
spection, for which the puritans were famous. So 
early however as 1624, the number of Indian victims 
had been so great, and the injustice of the pilgrims so 
apparent, that, when the conversion of the natives was 
resolved upon, their leader, John Robinson, in a letter 
to the governor of Plymouth, sarcastically wrote, 



13 



" Oh, that you had converted some, before you killed 
any." To various acts of harshness and perfidy, on 
the part of the English, we are to attribute the occur- 
rence of the Pequot war. They surprised their ene- 
mies at the river Mystic, and set fire to their wigwams. 
Many of these were consumed, and hundreds of men, 
women and children, fell in battle, or perished in the 
flames. The survivors were pursued with a vigilance 
so active, a vengeance so fell and unsparing, that the 
once formidable tribe of Pequots was reduced to a 
few wretched fugitives, and soon ceased to exist as a 
separate nation. The barbarity of the victors did not 
stop here. "Instead," says the historian,* " of treating 
the Pequods as an independent people, who made a 
gallant effort to defend the property, the rights, and 
the freedom of their nation, they retaliated upon them 
all the barbarities of American war. Some they mas- 
sacred in cold blood ; others they gave up to be tor- 
tured by the Indian allies ; a considerable number 
they sold as slaves in Bermudas ; the rest were re- 
duced to servitude among themselves." 

It would be an unpleasing, a repulsive task, to refer, 
in detail, to the hapless fates of those great men, 
Miantonimo, Alexander, Conanchet, and Philip. 
Their memories are embalmed in the historic page, 

* Robertson's America, vol. ii. page 258. 



14 



and their melancholy story would form a topic worthy 
of the powers of poetical genius. The beautiful and 
affecting tribute which our classic Irving has paid to 
the valour, conduct, and virtues of Philip, must ex- 
cite, in every reader, a tear of intense sympathy and 
poignant regret. 

In opposition to the historian of the west, and the 
prevailing sentiments of the present day, it would be 
easy to show, that Indian wars are not always the 
unprovoked offspring of Indian cruelty.* Some for- 
gotten slight, overreaching, treachery, or violence, has 
too often engendered those outbreaks from the Indians, 
which have been deemed causeless and spontaneous. 
The friendship of Penn and his companions carried 
with it the proofs of its own sincerity. During the 
long period of its continuance, the Indians made no 
warlike or unfriendly manifestation. On the con- 
trary, all was harmony, confidence, and kindness. 
In after years, those calamities of Indian warfare 
which arflicted the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, may 
be ascribed to a fatal change in the policy and dispo- 
sitions of the state. A protracted system of encroach- 
ment and oppression at last drove these faithful 
friends of our ancestors, disgusted and heart-broken, 
from their rightful domains, to seek independence and 



* See Appendix. Note 3. 



15 



security in the remote wilds and inhospitable solitudes 
of the west. 

When we survey, in calm retrospection, the origi- 
nal condition of the natives of America, when we 
trace the history of their wrongs, and contemplate 
their present enfeebled state, we must feel mingled 
emotions of sorrow, shame, and indignation. The 
annals of mankind exhibit no similar instance of in- 
juries so enormous, of atrocities so black and un- 
avenged. In after times, when the Indian fate shall 
have been finally sealed, and their existence known 
to future ages only through the impartial medium of 
authentic history, — when it shall be told that they 
were simple and unoffending, — that their aggressors 
were enlightened by science and ennobled by Chris- 
tianity, — that they carried on a series of exterminat- 
ing wars for nearly four centuries, killing, defrauding, 
and dispossessing them, — by what arguments will the 
invaders plead their justification? 

When first visited by Europeans, the Indians were 
numerous and powerful, happy in a precarious sub- 
sistence which was sweetened by the freedom of an 
unfettered independence. They were in the enjoy- 
ment of a religion and state of manners, approved 
and adopted by their fathers ; of a home endeared to 
them by the associations of childhood, and the graves 



16 



and reminiscences of their kindred. A boiwitiful 
ManittOj whose voice they had listened to in the 
thunder, as well as in the sighing winds of the forest, 
supplied them with game ; he led them forth to battle ; 
and if they gloriously fell, he was ready to admit them 
to the bliss of a better and far more delightful region. 
How changed is the scene ! That race once so free, 
so powerful, so full of heroic fortitude and high- 
minded honour, are dwindled into a miserable rem- 
nant, for the most part of base dependents and 
degenerate debauchees. 

" Thus to deep sadness sullenly resigned 
They feel their body's bondage in their mind, 
Put off their generous nature, and, to suit 
Their manners with their fate, put on the brute." 

Wretched outcasts from their native homes, they 
line the skirts of the settlements only to see ease, 
comfort and plenty, in which they are not allowed 
to share ; and to witness the protection and security 
of a society from which they are excluded. Of the 
many millions who roamed for ages the undisputed 
masters of our extended territory, not half a million 
survive. A few of these retain their characteristic 
independence, disdaining the shackles of civilised 
restraints, and the dependence imposed by fancied 
superiority. These scour the wilderness as before in 
pursuit of game, and glory in the proud identity of 



17 



their habits. Others, smitten with a taste for the arts 
and conveniences of an improved state of society, 
desire to secure their advancement and perpetuate 
their existence by claiming the privileges of immemo- 
rial right, and the redemption of our national faith, 
pledged to them in the form of solemn treaties. 

Even now the din of war, and reports of the hideous 
battle-axe and scalping-knife, ring in our ears. Where 
are we to look for the origin of these disasters ? Where, 
but in that same remorseless and inexorable policy 
which has extinguished so many noble spirits in death, 
and forced so many others into involuntary banish- 
ment? The weakness of the southwestern tribes in 
point of number, their pitiable condition in regard to 
discipline, would teach even their uninformed reason 
of the folly, the absurdity, of an offensive war. Do 
they assume a belligerent front when the measures of 
government are friendly, and their treatment by its 
citizens is just? The proudest Indian resorts to war 
only in retaliation of inflicted injury, or in defence 
of rights either violated or in danger. Revengeful 
sentiments for wrongs, which it would require a 
volume to unfold, swell the bosom of the reviled 
Seminole, and urge him to turbulence and desperation. 

But this insidious and oppressive system has dis- 
closed to us a new feature of Indian character, at 



18 



once a disproof to their adversaries and honourable to 
human nature. The Cherokees have been the unre- 
sisting victims of a persecution which has disgraced 
this age and country. They have borne its accumu- 
lated pressure without a single act of violence. They 
have met it with that heroic forbearance which looks 
for redress only to the justice and magnanimity of 
Congress. Let us honestly investigate the grounds 
upon which they claim the protection of that body to 
which they appeal; for if these be well founded, it is 
our duty, as the friends of man — as the humble repre- 
sentatives of the principles of William Penn — to 
espouse their cause and second their pretensions. 

The Cherokees are a tribe of Indians whose early 
history and recent misfortunes are alike remarkable. 
They are honourably mentioned by the chroniclers 
and travellers of the last age,* as attached to their 
native soil ; and exempted from those erratic propen- 
sities so common to the North American savage. 
With a very extended dominion, they united an in- 
trepidity and prowess capable of defending it. During 
the war of the revolution, they fought upon the 
English side; and so valiant and brave was this 
warlike people, that the United States were glad, 
upon the establishment of peace, to give them amnesty 



* See Appendix. Note 4. 



19 



and friendship by a formal treaty. Their territory 
then included thirty-five millions of acres. This vast 
and beautiful region was blessed with a delightful 
climate, plentiful streams of water, and a soil of sur- 
passing fertility. Numerous successive grants to the 
United States have dwindled down this princely in- 
heritance to about eight millions of acres, of which an 
extensive portion is comprised within the map of 
Georgia. 

The first : mpact between the United States and the 
Cherokee nation, was the treaty of Hopewell, made in 
the year 1785. Its objects, as expressed, were to esta- 
blish peace and friendship, to define limits, and to pre- 
scribe rules for the prevention and redress of mutual 
injuries. The treaty of Holston, concluded in 1791, has 
received the emphatic sanction of Washington, in the 
twofold forms of an act of Congress, and a previous 
convention with the Creeks.* Even at that day, the 
Cherokees had made some advancement in civilised 
life, and one of the articles was intended to provide 
for its extension by the general distribution of agri - 
cultural implements. In the fourteen subsequent 
treaties with the Cherokees, the existence of a right 
to the soil; the guarantee of that right; and additional 
means for their social improvement; are kept steadily 



* See Appendix. Note 5. 



20 



in view. Nowhere is it impaired by direct expression 
or remote implication. In the last of those four great 
compacts, which were framed under the auspices, and 
with the approbation of Washington, the United States 
engage, " never to claim the lands reserved to the In- 
dians." The final treaty, which was ratified in 1819, 
was a definitive cession and agreement. Prior to its 
execution, and as an inducement to it, the Indians 
were solemnly assured that no further cession of their 
lands thereafter would ever be solicited or required. Its 
provisions were in coincidence with those liberal and 
enlightened principles which looked to the perpetual 
residence of the Cherokees upon their native soil, in 
the elevated character of freemen. A permanent fund 
was to be created for the diffusion of the blessings of 
education, to them and their posterity for ever. 

From the first compact formed by the United States 
with any Indian nation, which was that solemnly 
concluded with the Dela wares in 1778, down to the 
treaty with the Creeks in 1826 — every where and in 
each — will be found profession heaped upon profession, 
guarantee following guarantee, inviolability of soil, 
and perpetuity of friendship. In the correspondences 
between our government and the Indian tribes, 
from an early period, they are affectionately urged to 
relinquish the occupation of hunting for the more 
certain pursuit of systematic husbandry; to train their 



21 



children in letters and a knowledge of civilised life ; 
and to organise a regular form of civil and political 
society. They are assured of the fidelity with which 
the promises of treaties would be kept, in securing to 
them the absolute ownership and exclusive posses- 
sion of their property. All intrusion into the Cherokee 
territory is, by the treaty of Hopewell, plainly pro- 
hibited; and those who violate the engagement are to 
be surrendered to the Indians for discretionary punish- 
ment. The paramount object of the treaty which 
followed, after prescribing the extent and terms of the 
cession, was the security of the remainder inviolate. 
The treaty of 1798, concluded at Tellico, confirms 
the stipulations of antecedent compacts, by assuring 
to the natives for ever the residue of their country. A 
long succession of subsequent contracts, enforced by 
the ordinary legislation of Congress, provide against 
the invasion of their property from white settlers, by 
the summary process of instant eviction. 

There can be no question that the Cherokee nation, 
for her own protection, is in a state of political pupil- 
age to the United States. It is equally clear that her 
rights of territory repose upon a similar basis. But 
these rights are indefeasible in their nature, and abso- 
lutely perfect, with the restriction of an exclusive 
power in the United States to extinguish the title by 
an honourable purchase. She cannot sell to a foreign 



22 

nation, to a state, nor to private individuals, under 
the provisions of various treaties, recognised and en- 
forced by acts of congress.* This question was pre- 
sented by Jefferson in 1793, in its true and legitimate 
aspect. He regards the privilege of pre-emption only 
in the character of a remainder, after the extinguish- 
ment of an existing right, which, unless voluntarily 
conveyed, may continue for ever. This doctrine has 
received the approbation of all concurring authorities. 
It has been approved and sustained by elementary 
writers upon jurisprudence ; it has been sanctioned 
by the supreme court of the United States ; it has 
been reasoned upon and adopted by the state papers 
of the federal government. 

Such is the nature of the engagements under 
which the Cherokees are entitled, by virtue of laws, 
treaties, and promises, to the duty of protection from 
the United States. I might assume a higher position 
than the mere recognition of a right to their own 
domain, in successive compacts. I might ascend to 
the basis of Indian title, and claim what has not been 
surrendered, upon a ground beyond and superior to 
any recognition. Let them roam over these reserva- 
tions as hunters, or cultivate them as husbandmen, or 
cover them with cities, and no right under the law, 



* Acts of 1790 and 1802. 



23 



no power but that of violence, can abridge or control 
them in the absolute ownership. They hold, by an 
immemorial patent, a deed whose antiquity no one 
can question, because its date is indubitably ante- 
cedent to European discovery, and too early for the 
utmost reaches of European knowledge. 

But the state of Georgia has had the boldness to 
interfere with these possessions, held, as they are, 
under the twofold sanctions of original right and 
treaty stipulation. She has ventured, in the face of 
her own engagements, to arrogate a jurisdiction over 
the territory, and a title to the estates of the Chero- 
kees, independent of the United States. But, until 
the convention of 1783, between the Cherokees and 
Georgia, is blotted from existence ; and so lung as the 
compact of 1802 is preserved among the public 
archives, the assumptions of the latter must be re- 
garded as that lust for dominion, which usually 
receives the name of fraud or usurpation. 

" Tyranny- 
Absolves all faith; and who invades our rights, 
Howe'er his own commence, can never be 
But an usurper." 

According to the theory of her doctrine, broached in 
1827, and since reduced to practice, her rights against 
the Cherokees are unquestionable, and without 



24 



limitation, since her force is able to second her preten- 
sions. She possesses the physical might to enforce her 
claims, if a superior right, because a superior power* 
will lend her that countenance or connivance which 
she requires, for the completion of her unjust and 
iniquitous projects. 

It must ever prove a subject of unmitigated regret, 
that when Georgia had asserted her monstrous and 
perilous doctrines, the Congress of the United States 
should so far aid the tendencies of her usurping spirit, 
as to enact the law, " to provide for an exchange of 
lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or 
territories, and for their removal west of the Missis- 
sippi." That act has been the moving cause, the 
chief instrument of the persecutions which the Che- 
rokees, in common with the other Indian tribes, have 
since endured. Prom the period of its passage, it has 
been proclaimed as the settled policy of the govern- 
ment, to effect the removal of the Indians, by persua- 
sion or by force. Remonstrance has been followed 
by menace. These proving ineffectual, every species 
of insult, oppression, and tyranny, has been resorted 
to for the purpose of cruelly sundering those ties of 
deep-seated attachment, which bind man to his native 
home. Hordes of speculators are collected from all 



* See Appendix. Note 6. 



25 



parts of the Union, observing their movements with a 
burning impatience, and like the ravenous Harpies 
in Virgil, ready to pounce upon their possessions 
before they are abandoned. Is it gratuitous or 
unfair to suppose, that these greedy expectants of the 
heritage of another should put in requisition every 
guilty means to gratify their desires which ingenuity 
might prompt, or bad instruments accomplish ? Is it 
gratuitous or unfair to suppose, that they would foment 
jealousies, heart-burnings and mischief, with a view 
to impart additional impulse to that screw, which, a 
public agent declared, was to grind the Indians into 
powder? It is to such causes that the shout of savage 
and merciless war, from the enraged Creek and the 
not less injured Seminole, has penetrated into the 
shades of peaceful settlements, laying waste the honest 
rewards of industry, and destroying life with indis- 
criminate and remorseless butchery.* It is to such 
causes, urged on with a more desperate spirit, that 
the improved Cherokee finds his life a grievous and 
oppressive burthen, bowed beneath the accumulated 
weight of secret cabals, of bold usurpations, and of 
ingenious fraud. It is their unhappy lot to own a 
country so rich and beautiful, as to allure the covetous 
longings of a sagacious and hard-hearted neighbour. 
The delightfulness of the climate, the fertility of its 



4 



* See Appendix, Note 7. 



26 



virgin soil, the valuable improvements which im- 
mense tracts have received from the laborious hand 
of cultivation, and above all, the existence of inesti- 
mable mines of the precious metals, render it a bait 
too tempting for unprincipled rapacity to resist. 

Daring a period of seven years, these people have 
patiently withstood the combined machinations of in- 
ternal enemies, and the neglect and injustice of that 
government, to which, under the solemn sanctions of 
laws and treaties, they might reasonably look for pro- 
tection. Georgia, in defiance of her plighted faith to 
the Cherokees, and her allegiance to the Union, has 
claimed the whole district of Indian territory, within 
the limits of the state, as her own. She has proceed- 
ed so far in the assertion of this pretended right, as to 
parcel out the land by lottery ; and with the strong 
arm of the militia, to divest the rightful possessors. 
Families, on whose acres the wilderness had given 
place to fruitful fields, and who had surrounded them- 
selves with the comforts and conveniences of civilised 
existence, have been driven away in the midst of 
winter, to seek habitations they knew not whither. 
Women and children, in the temporary absence of 
their natural protectors, have been thus exposed to 
the evils of famine and the severity of the elements. 
Cattle belonging to private individuals, and other 
species of movable property, have been subjected to the. 



27 



wanton depredation of thieves, and the persons of the 
owners to the violence of desperadoes. For the re- 
dress of these injuries they have sought the protec- 
tion of the United States, but the answer of the govern- 
ment is, that they have no power to interfere : they 
have sought it from the tribunals of the state, but 
equity jurisdiction has been closed against them by 
express legislation. 

A cardinal principle of Georgia policy has been to 
tire out the people, by every kind of causeless vexation 
and wan ton wrong. Through her instrumentality, the 
agents of the United States have suspended the pay- 
ment of annuities, due by virtue of long subsisting 
treaties ; and have called elections at unusual times, 
and with the inadequate object of deciding, by suf- 
frage, the mode of their reception. Violence has 
stalked abroad at noon day. The printing press of 
the nation has been forcibly seized, with a view to 
silence that organ of public sentiment and popular 
complaint. Persons of respectable character and high 
standing have been hurried off to prison, under the 
authority of a brutal soldiery, without the specifica- 
tion of charge or the formality of trial. 

Where shall they fly for shelter from these mani- 
fold evils ? Shall they give up that home which they 
have cherished and made comfortable, for strange 



28 



habitations in a howling desert ? Shall they abandon 
those hills for ever consecrated to every feeling, sen- 
timent, and association, which can render them dear 
to the heart? 

" How can they part ? The lake, the woods, the hills, 
Speak to their pensive hearts of early days, 
Remembrance woos them from the haunted rills, 
And hallows every spot their eye surveys." 

Shall they imitate the example of their misguided and 
desperate brethren, and in a moment of frenzy, grief, 
and despair, fly to arms, as their own avengers ? 
Shall they tranquilly reflect upon the immense ces- 
sions of territory with which the promises of protec- 
tion were bought, — promises now proved to be empty, 
illusory, unmeaning? But we have an assurance 
against any warlike sally, in the sentiments of the 
people, and the example of the past. Though in 
number exceeding eighteen thousand inhabitants, they 
prefer the pacific means of petition, remonstrance, ne- 
gotiation, to the probable chance of being involved 
with the slaughtered around them, in promiscuous and 
undistinguished ruin. Encompassed as they are by 
every form of unmitigated tyranny, the elevated 
style of their appeals, its freedom from passion, and 
the manly temperance with which they avouch the 
plighted faith of laws and treaties, present a humiliat- 



29 



ing contrast to the deportment of their oppressive 
neighbour. 

Ever since the treaty of 1819, the Cherokee nation 
has replied to each application for a sale of their re- 
maining estate, in the firm language of enlightened 
freedom. " The treasury of the United States," say 
they, " does not contain money enough to purchase 
an additional acre." They have felt satisfied with 
the increase of their social attainments, as they knew 
that emigration to the untamed solitudes beyond the 
Mississippi would retard their advances in civilisa- 
tion and refinement. Already their domain exhibits 
the germs of a taste, which bear no contemptible com- 
parison to large districts of our own people, in the 
southern and western country. From the humble 
dwelling of logs in an incipient charing, to comfortable 
and even elegant edifices, in tracts under skilful cul- 
tivation, the Cherokee region presents the spectacle 
of a thrifty and enterprising community. The unset- 
tled habits of nomadic existence are gone. They 
have disappeared amidst the diffusion of a relish for 
those higher enjoyments, which pertain to moral and 
mental melioration. Nothing seems requisite for their 
realising the bright visions of those who were derided 
as day-dreamers, but the stretching out of that strong 
arm in their defence, which has sworn to sustain, suc- 
cour, and protect them. Shall this arm be powerless 



30 



or timid, when the rights of humanity, the faith of 
treaties, the sanctity of laws, and the sacred honour 
of the nation, are all directly involved ? 

In pursuance of a policy so disgraceful and cruel, 
the attempt has been recently made to negotiate a 
treaty for the United States with a few unauthorised 
persons, on a basis repugnant to the sentiments of 
the Cherokee people. The instrument concocted at 
New Echota is deemed imperfect in its guarantees, 
and exceptionable in most of its provisions. The 
constituted authorities of the nation have disavowed 
its adoption, as a palpable fraud ; and the people 
themselves, in an almost unanimous mass, have pro- 
tested against its ratification. They prefer to be 
forced from the country of their birth and lineage, by 
an open and irrevocable decree, to sanctioning an 
iniquitous and spurious compact, extorted by the 
baseness of manoBUvre, and the underhanded secrecy 
of stratagem. No one can deny that that opposition 
must be strong which resists, among the neediest of 
the people ; the lures held out by the instrument itself, 
to secure their acquiescence.* 

If the national character be of any value, — if 
numerous treaties solemnly made, often repeated, 



* See Appendix, Note 8. 



31 

frequently acted upon, and solemnly recognised, from 
the earliest period, by each succeeding administration 
of the United States, be worth the paper they are 
written upon, — if laws and compacts, framed for the 
benefit of Georgia, and to which she is a party, be 
not wholly void and delusive, — if the rights of man be 
of any consequence, and the cause of Christianity 
and civilisation of any account, — then it becomes the 
duty of the United States to drive away intruders 
from the Indian lands ; to reinstate the rightful 
possessors ; to repay the injured the amount of their 
losses ; and to protect them and their property, in all 
time to come, from open violence, predatory invasion, 
and insidious fraud. 

May not the difficulties which now exist with 
Georgia, and which the United States erroneously 
considers as insuperable, soon be reproduced with 
multiplied additions, in regard to the Indian asylum 
across the Mississippi ? With the new state of 
Arkansas on one side, and the ambitious province of 
Texas on another, what shall prevent collision and 
outrage? What, in future time, will prevent the 
United States herself from reasserting that legal 
inability to guard the territory from invasion, which 
she now professes, in the face of guarantees almost as 
numerous as the stars ? May not the day arrive, 
when state jealousy or personal avarice will find it 
convenient to distinguish between tribes situated on 



32 



their immemorial possessions, and those who have 
emigrated to distant regions 1 May it not, then, be 
expedient to embarrass the question of Indian patents 
with some forgotten legislation or doctrine of con- 
structive right, or to impair their legal efficacy by 
the act of Congress of 1830? May not the Indians 
themselves recede into savage life ; and incited by 
neighbouring treachery, or stimulated by their own 
passions, be in a state of perpetual conflict and 
disquiet ? 

In imitation, therefore, of William Penn,let us extend 
to them a generous protection in their present abode ; 
and lead them, by all the means in our power, to that 
civilisation after which they aspire. The glory of the 
republic will be dimmed, its brightest laurels will be 
faded or lost, if we desert, in their extremity, a people 
with so many claims upon our justice and sympathy. 
Let us prove, like Penn, the sincerity of our friend- 
ship — its freedom from interested alloy — by the unerr- 
ing test of active kindness. We shall thus disarm 
those bands of savages, who now, in the spirit of 
demons, prowl over the forests, seeking vengeance 
upon the defenceless inhabitants of peaceful and 
secluded settlements. We shall stanch the blood 
which cries to us from the distant frontiers; and 
crown humanity with those precious and enduring 
results not merely of honourable safety to ourselves, 
but of justice and civilisation to the Indian race ! 



APPENDIX. 



Note 1. See page 8. 

I am happy to see similar sentiments to those in the text, 
in the excellent biography of John Elliot, the Indian apostle, 
by Convers Francis. This Life forms the fifth volume of 
Sparks's American Biography. The whole work is replete 
with evidence that the Indian is capable of being penetrated 
and softened by the offices of Christian kindness. The 
respectable author gives his opinion at large of the Indian 
character, which is homogeneous with the text. 

Heckewelder represents the Indians, with whom he was 
acquainted, as being too magnanimous to go to war, without 
first apprising their enemies of their intention. Nevertheless, 
the Indian custom generally is, either to let that intention be 
ascertained by acts of individual outrage, or to proclaim it by 
a general attack upon the main body of their enemies. The 
suddenness of these assaults is the pride and boast, as it is 
the chief art, of untutored policy. Indian magnanimity in war 
cannot often be the subject of praise, any more than certain 
usages which civilised society has sanctioned, in hostile 
times. The education of the Indian has taught him that 
5 



34 



such a mode of onset is not only allowable but meritorious. 
But he has been known to feed his adversary in time of war, 
averring that he could not fight with a starving enemy. A 
very different line of policy, it must be acknowledged, is 
pursued by improved states ! It is permitted by the code of 
civilised nations to starve an enemy into submission. 



Note 2. See page 10. 



The Lenape tribe was solemnly declared a nation of 
women, at Albany, in 1717. Several writers of New 
England pretend to account for the long prevalence of peace 
in Pennsylvania, by describing this people as originally a 
miserable and inferior race, without martial pretensions. I 
have thought it of sufficient importance, once for all, to refute 
this notion, by a reference to their early history and actual 
condition, during the life of William Penn. They were 
the " Grand fathers" of most of the Indian tribes of North 
America. 



Note 3. See page 14. 



The sentiment objected to in the text is contained in " The 
Indian Wars of the West," by Timothy Flint, page 37. He 
says — "We affirm an undoubting belief, from no unfrequent 
nor inconsiderable means of observation, that aggression has 
commenced, in the account current of mutual crime, as a 
hundred to one, on the part of the Indians." This testimony 



35 



is contradicted by all history since the discovery of America. 
I might refer indifferently to the conquest of North or South 
America, and, not confining the enquiry to the early settle- 
ments of the eastern and southern parts of the United States, 
which are now the subjects of history, appeal to recent events 
in the West and South. Many historians might be quoted in 
confirmation of this position. Among these may be classed, 
with no impropriety, the novels of our gifted countryman, 
J. Fenimore Cooper. Though professedly works of fiction, 
they present, in relation to Indian history and manners, 
portraitures of surpassing fidelity and exquisite genius. 
Cooper is not so much the fanciful limner as to paint 
the Indian the usual aggressor. Judge Hall, of Cincinnati, 
has given, in his highly interesting and beautiful " Sketches 
of History, Life, and Manners in the West," published in 
1835, the most abundant and accumulated evidence in oppo- 
sition to the sentiments of Flint. 



Note 4. See page 18. 

" Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the 
Colonies of North Carolina and Georgia," (edition of 1779,) 
vol. ii. p. 221, and " Bartram's Travels," page 485, are here 
referred to. 



Note 5. See page 19. 



The eleventh article of the treaty of Holston, is a literal 
copy from an act of Congress, which received the signature 



36 



of President Washington on the 22d day of July, 1790, and 
of a treaty with the Creeks, formed at New York, on the 7th 
day of August, 1790. These facts show that the language 
and provisions of that treaty had been subjects of great 
deliberation, and that it expressed sentiments of policy upon 
which the government of the United States then solemnly 
determined to act. 



Note 6. See page 24. 



A joint committee of the legislature of Georgia made a 
report upon the subject of the Cherokees, which was approved 
by the senate of that state, December 27th, 1827. The fol- 
lowing passages, which occur in the report, are alluded to in 
the text. "It may be contended," says the committee, " with 
much plausibility, that there is, in these claims, more of 
force than justice ; but they are claims which have been 
recognised and admitted by the whole civilised world ;" (we 
are to suppose that the committee here refer to Pope Innocent 
VIII., Q,ueen Elizabeth, and perhaps to Cortes and Pizarro;) 
" and it is unquestionably true, that under such circumstances 
force becomes right." Meaning, we may presume, that force 
is the arbiter to decide what is right. 

This idea is more distinctly avowed by the committee in 
the passage subjoined: — "Before Georgia became a party to 
the articles of agreement and cession," (the compact of 1802) 
" she could rightfully have possessed herself of those lands, 
either by negotiation with the Indians, or by force; and she 



37 



had determined in one of those two ways to do so, but by 
this contract she made it the duty of the United States to 
sustain the expense of obtaining for her the possession, pro- 
vided it could be done upon reasonable terms, and by nego- 
tiation; but in case it should be necessary to resort to force, 
this contract with the United States makes no provision ; the 
consequence is, Georgia is left untrammeled, and at full 
liberty to prosecute her rights in that point of view" (i. e. by 
force), " according to her own discretion, and as though no 
contract had been made." These extracts are alike deficient 
in logic and morality. To quote them is enough to consign 
their authors to the disgust and execration of mankind. 



Note 7. See page 25. 



A book lately published at Baltimore, entitled, " The War 
in Florida; being an exposition of its causes, and an accurate 
history of the campaigns of Generals Clinch, Gaines, and 
Scott; by a late Staff Officer," contains authentic proof of 
the origin of the difficulties with the Seminoles, and abun- 
dantly confirms the observations in the text. The two 
Memorials, and accompanying documents, addressed by the 
Cherokee nation to the last Congress, together with the recent 
letter of John Ross, the principal chief, to a Friend, demon- 
strate that the same causes have been in operation, a little 
varied by local circumstances, among most of the Indian 
tribes. — Massachusetts is worthy of commendation, for her 
treatment of the Indians within her borders. The Marshpee 
tribe, whom, by an act of the Massachusetts legislature, 



38 



passed in 1789, it was death to teach to read and write, were 
allowed, in 1835, a liberal annuity from her school fund, for 
the purposes of education. 



Note 8. See page 30. 



It appears, that out of a population of eighteen thousand 
Cherokees, no less than fifteen thousand have protested 
against the pretended treaty, which was formed at New 
Echota, on the 25th December, 1835. Major William A. 
Davis states, in a communication to the secretary of war, 
under date, 5th March 1836, that the regular delegation were 
not present at the assembly, nor when the instrument was 
signed. He says that a feast was prepared, to secure a large 
meeting of the Indians, but that not more than three hundred 
men, women, and children, attended, who had no authority 
whatever to act for the nation. The Cherokee protest to 
Congress, under date, March 11th, 1836, employs this em- 
phatic language in regard to the ratification of this spurious 
agreement : " If it be the fate of the Cherokee people, and the 
decree has gone forth, that they must leave their homes and 
native land, and seek a new residence in the wilds of the far 
west, without their consent, let them be expelled and re- 
moved by an act of congress^ when they or their posterity, 
in after times, may have some claims upon the magnanimity 
of the American people. The delegation do solemnly de- 
clare, they would consider such an act preferable, and more 
humane, than the ratification and enforcement of a fraudulent 
treaty, false upon its face, and made without the consent of 
one of the professed contracting parties." 



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